So here's the story, starting looking through old records anytime I'm at a place that sells them, Half Price Books, music stores, thrift stores, etc. Started building a little collection from the .99 stacks, all with the intent of building out a turntable stereo at some point. So without dropping big money, what do you think of this simple budget setup?

I'm thinking it would work like this, turntable(with built in preamp) would use RCA cable from turntable to the amplifier, then stereo wire into the passive bookshelf speakers. This would work right? Do we have any audiophiles in the house?

My thoughts on using passive speakers and an amp is just price. Seems going that route I can get better quality sound for the money versus using really expensive active speakers.

It won't blow you out of the water, but it should sound just fine at 'reasonable' volumes. You don't want audiophile opinions on this, they'll just point at you and shake their heads. Personally, I'd look for a decent stereo at a thrift shop instead of that amplifier, you'll probably save money and get better sound.

It's funny, we can find any song on the internet instantly, it's all there, only a couple clicks of the mouse away.

But like today, I'm in a Value Village tearing through stacks of old crappy records(wow a lot of Jim Nabors out there) trying to find anything of value.... the hunt. I see The Eagles, Hotel California(withhold judgement please). I got so excited! And the cover was empty, no record.

I miss that. I miss looking for music, I miss going to the music store. Looking at album covers, reading the lyrics and looking at the pictures on the covers.

I'm just enjoying my new little hobby.

Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be

A few years back I bought the AT-LP120-USB to take the ~200 Albums I had and make them into MP3s. Once I finished the thing is sitting around collecting dust. I should have put it in the want ads.

Anyway using it and a s/w package call "Spin It Again" I was able to build up a collection that I imported into iTunes and doubleTwist. What was cool about the "Spin It Again" s/w was that it could either auto-split the tracks or let you manually edit the recordings tracks. It could identify the album and pull in the title and collection info. Or you could provide the name of the album and it would use its user created Albums listings to automatically get the track names. It correctly identified 85% of the albums from its online database.

I used my sound card instead of the USB connection since it seemed like the fidelity was better to me but I could never quantify it, the USB turntable would create its own sound device that I bypassed. I also used a standard turn table through my amp and fed that into the sound card aux port as well because I was experimenting. You could use the s/w to set your levels. Worked out pretty well.

It's funny, we can find any song on the internet instantly, it's all there, only a couple clicks of the mouse away.

But like today, I'm in a Value Village tearing through stacks of old crappy records(wow a lot of Jim Nabors out there) trying to find anything of value.... the hunt. I see The Eagles, Hotel California(withhold judgement please). I got so excited! And the cover was empty, no record.

I miss that. I miss looking for music, I miss going to the music store. Looking at album covers, reading the lyrics and looking at the pictures on the covers.

I'm just enjoying my new little hobby.

I agree with all of your points, I would just like to add that when you actually start spinning your old records you are going to discover a lot of new great songs. Back then artists would record whole albums, now, well basically someone like Adam Levine farts and they build an album around it. For example, the Eagles's On The Border, the song, is one of their best, imo, that I discovered after buying the LP.

Oh, and your setup looks good. Definitely no reason to break the bank on a sound system for a hobby you're just getting into.

don't know which audio system you'll choose but this is awesome (listening to records, seeing artwork, liner notes, etc.). Vinyl rules.Requires less skipping around and helps you listen to the entire works on ea side (aka: buy/click a select track to listen to. IOW: lazy, garbage listening)

I do not suggest that player only because it does not have a pitch control. Almost each record weighs a little bit differently. Especially if you start buying 180-200 gram records. For the money I would go with this turntable to get you by: http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PLTTB1-Profe ... =turntable

Found this little gem(generic pics on interwebz). Cheap, but always had the reputation of a good sounding integrated amp. Freakin' 30 years old and sounds great! Actually popped the fuse when I first tried to play it, but once I got that figured out, so far so good.

Pioneer SA-1050 (1983-1984)

Bottom one:

Also found 2 boxes of records in my moms garage that she got from a friend who was going to throw them out! Seriously. Full of Beatles, Zeppelin, Police, Doobie Brothers, Steeley Dan, and the Stones. Score!

Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be

GeekHawk wrote:It won't blow you out of the water, but it should sound just fine at 'reasonable' volumes. You don't want audiophile opinions on this, they'll just point at you and shake their heads. Personally, I'd look for a decent stereo at a thrift shop instead of that amplifier, you'll probably save money and get better sound.

A lot of that old transistor based class A/B gear sounds light years better at loud volumes than the cheap class D crap they have at most consumer electronics stores. Those old receivers often times have quite a lot of power, too. They may not win on the stat sheet, but they definitely pass the ear test.

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That old stuff is what you find at a lot of thrift stores, too. As part of my MSEE studies, I'm considering designing a tube amp. Maybe a hybrid, with tubes for the power stage and solid-state for the rest... And plug my turntable into it, and crank up the vinyl.

That little Lepai worked, kinda. But it was weak, cranked to 10 is barely put out enough music for a room. And it sounded abrasive, shallow.

This Pioneer I can't turn the volume past 3. 2 is comfortable. And it just sounds so warm and full. Love it.

Now someone at my work, just happened into talking about old reliable equipment still running as were standing next to a server rack, I tell him about the Pioneer I found. Mentioned he has a Kenwood KA-7100 he'll sell me. Score!

Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be